Watch: AVENGED SEVENFOLD Plays First Concert In Five Years

AVENGED SEVENFOLD played its first concert since June 2018 last night (Friday, May 12) at AREA15 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The band's setlist included the live debut of three songs from AVENGED SEVENFOLD's upcoming album, "Life Is But A Dream…", which will be released on June 2 via Warner: "Game Over", "We Love You" and "Nobody".

The setlist was as follows (according to Setlist.fm):

01. Game Over (live debut)
02. Afterlife
03. Hail To The King
04. We Love You (live debut)
05. Buried Alive
06. So Far Away
07. Nobody (live debut)
08. Nightmare
09. Chop Suey! (SYSTEM OF A DOWN cover) (snippet)
10. Bat Country
11. Unholy Confessions (song cut short due to injury in crowd)
12. Mattel (snippet)
13. A Little Piece Of Heaven

Fan-filmed video can be seen below.

Last month, AVENGED SEVENFOLD announced the "Life Is But A Dream…" 360-degree immersive album experience at AREA15 from May 11 through May 14.

Experience the band's first full-length album in seven years three weeks before its official release, exclusively at this once-in-a-lifetime event. Dive into 11 new songs from the multi-platinum headliners and famed heavy metal rock band with grand, immersive visuals and an exclusive curated merch pop-up shop celebrating their genre-bending new album set to release on June 2, 2023.

Says AVENGED SEVENFOLD: "We're excited to announce our #LifeIsButADream… 360º Immersive Album Experience at @AREA15official in Las Vegas from May 11-14. Be the first to experience our new record, three weeks before its official release, as it's meant to be heard - in its entirety from start to finish."

Tickets are available now at Area15.com.

In a recent interview with I-Rock 93.5, AVENGED SEVENFOLD bassist Johnny Christ spoke about how he and his bandmates evolve musically on every album while still maintaining the core AVENGED SEVENFOLD sound. He said: "It's not a conscious thing. Pretty much every record that we've always done, we challenge ourselves to sound different and do something different. Like I said, we've done it every time in our career. Each time you do that, we put so much of us into creating that art that it becomes part of our DNA. And whether we know it or not, it's still there in the next writing process and the next writing process and the next writing process. So much so that at this point — we all talk about it internally — no matter what we say… We can say we wanna sound like the craziest hip-hop thing or a classical thing or whatever, but once you put it through us, it goes through the quote-unquote AVENGED SEVENFOLD filter. And that's just us. That's where you get that character of AVENGED SEVENFOLD, really.

"So, to answer the question, it's not like a direct thought of, like, 'Oh, no. We went too crazy. Let's bring it back and make it more AVENGED-y.' It's, like, no. We're going for it," he continued. "This is what it sounds like when we go for it.

"We have distinct players in this band. You've got a lead vocalist like M. Shadows — a very distinct, awesome voice. You've got the guitar work of Synyster [Gates] and Zacky [Vengeance] — just so distinct. And who's gonna mix up Brooks Wackerman's style with anybody else? It's just we have a bunch of unique players together that I think no matter how far out we go, it's gonna fall into that uniqueness anyway, and it just sounds like AVENGED SEVENFOLD by the end of the day."

Written and recorded over the span of four years, "Life Is But a Dream..." was inspired by the writing and philosophy of Albert Camus. Accordingly, the lyrics are rooted in existentialism and absurdism.

Last month, AVENGED SEVENFOLD announced the second leg of its extensive "Life is But A Dream…" North American tour featuring support from FALLING IN REVERSE. Produced by Live Nation, leg two includes stops in Nashville, Denver, Austin, and more before concluding at Fort Worth's Dickies Arena on October 15. Fans will have the opportunity to hear the group's first single in seven years, "Nobody", and their new album "Life Is But A Dream…" for the first time live during the 30-show outing.

The first leg with support from ALEXISONFIRE includes thirteen cities across the U.S. and Canada, such as Mansfield, Québec City, Tinley Park, Calgary, and more. The group kicks off their 2023 solo touring run with two unique one-night-only arena shows in New York and Los Angeles this June.

To date, AVENGED SEVENFOLD has sold over 10 million albums worldwide and earned two consecutive No. 1 albums on Billboard's Top 200 Albums chart (2010's "Nightmare" and 2013's "Hail To The King") to go along with over a billion video views and a billion-plus Spotify streams, as well as multiple No. 1 singles on rock radio. The band is equally known for their spectacular live shows, selling out arenas and headlining the world's most prestigious rock festivals.